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ximilialog2023-10-08 08:05 am
- ! event log,
- ace attorney: phoenix wright,
- bbc sherlock: john watson,
- fear street: ziggy berman,
- grishaverse: the darkling,
- gundam seed/destiny: yzak jule,
- my hero academia: toru hakagure,
- pacific rim: newton geiszler,
- shta: sherlock holmes,
- star trek aos: leonard mccoy,
- terminator: the t-800,
- the old guard: andromache,
- the untamed: wei wuxian,
- the witcher: yennefer of vengerberg,
- transformers: minimus ambus
MISSION: THE SUN NEVER SETS ON AMARYLLIS GROVE
● ● ● M I S S I O N 1 7 . 1
Over the course of the station’s downtime, even the least astute observer will notice the sudden influx of crewmates aboard the station. Before you can further inquire and investigate this anomaly in your usual routine, your earpiece will ping! with the familiar sound of a newly received mission file. Viveca’s voice immediately follows.
After reviewing your mission file and gathering all of the necessary supplies and clothing options, those who are well prepared might have enough time for a decent night’s sleep. If you aren’t the sort to sleep before a mission, well … carry on.
When morning arrives, you’ll make your way to the teleportation platform to join your fellow crewmates. Viveca and Degar are already standing by, the latter passing around the aforementioned potion to those who will be needing one. Finally, when the entire crew has assembled, Degar starts to speak.
Viveca nods from her place.
Degar lifts both hands to give them all a cheesy little thumbs up. Without further ado, the hum of the platform, as it begins to power up, grows louder and louder until it’s impossible to hear anything else but the machinery thrumming in your ears. Soon enough, you’ll feel the familiar tug at the pit of your stomach as you’re whisked away from the station and towards your destination. But for a moment that feels both too short and too long, you hear it: whispers, echoes, voices that speak to you in several tenors at once, all of them providing you with a goal in exchange for their help.
Before you have a chance to answer, your surroundings begin to paint a clearer picture. You’ll be found in your usual place of choosing: whether that’s your own household, the park, or one of the several locations in and around town.
Welcome, Orbers, to Amaryllis Grove.
On the day of the Orbers’ arrival, the weather is crisp and sunny, the trees still lush and green with only the barest hints of the leaves beginning to yellow and redden at their tips. As the summer months slowly transition into cooler autumn temperatures, the entire town feels pleasant, even cozy. The clouds in the sky provide gentle overcast conditions and you might think to grab a light coat, or wear a longer sleeve but it is by no means chilly enough to feel anything but pleasant.
Depending on where you decided to arrive, you’ll want to begin your explorations and familiarize yourself with the Grove, which will be your home for the next little while.
1.0 The town of Amaryllis Grove will feel spacious and sprawling while also being cozy and compact. Cleanly paved streets wind in and around residential pockets and cul-de-sacs, threading through the community’s amenities, goods, and service buildings. The community centre, the library, the government offices, and the Mayor’s office can all be found in the main core of the Grove. The police station and television station (playing news and sitcoms in classic black and white) are situated nearby, and are all within walking distance of each other, and the neighbouring retail streets are located just past the block. This includes clothing boutiques, restaurants, coffee shops, grocery and general stores (which will sell all manner of hardware, cleaning supplies, and simple, household magical items). Having a vehicle will certainly help to get around town if you’re in a hurry running any errands, but a bicycle works just as well, and the walkability is pleasant for those wanting to take a stroll.
Everyone here is well-dressed in crisply ironed slacks and button-downs in neutrals, or colourful A-line skirts and dresses with delicate detailing for their tops. Children and teenagers are likewise found in school uniform consisting of dark blue pleated skirts or slacks, and white shirts. With the weather beginning to cool, a well structured jacket may also be a part of the ensemble.
2.0 Once you’ve explored some of the town, familiarizing yourself with the backstory and family history you and your fellow crewmates have corroborated together, perhaps you’ll want to explore your house. Lined up in rows of pleasant, homogeneous pitched roof structures, each house in the neighbourhood will come equipped with all of the necessary spaces to live a perfectly suburban life, the most ideal environment to raise a family and grow old amongst generations of familiar faces. Each one-storey house, in either brick or ship-lap siding and in various colours, will have 3-4 bedrooms, an attached garage for the family car, a living room, bathroom, spacious kitchen, and enough yard space to require both a lawn-cutter and a green thumb for the garden. Interiors have already been furnished with all of the up-to-date items for the time, resembling Earth’s 1950s era to an almost eerily accurate degree.
Say hello to your neighbour when they greet you or wish you a pleasant day. Many will look perfectly human, while others may seem more alien with vibrant skin, an extra limb, antennae, gills, and the like. Some also possess magical abilities which is not seen as strange or abnormal here; however, the magic used in Amaryllis Grove consists of simple household magic to aid with cooking, cleaning, and keeping the house perfectly pleasant – otherwise known as ‘petty magic’. Whether you’re used to such sights will likely depend on where you’re originally from, but no matter who lives next to or near you, they seem friendly enough. They may even invite you over for dinner, or inquire when you plan on hosting your next party.
You’ll cook, clean, sleep, and host parties and dinners with your neighbours of Amaryllis Grove within the walls of your quaint abode so it’s best to get to know the space that will undoubtedly become second nature to you.
3.0 While the concept of ‘Halloween’ does not exist in Amaryllis Grove, other such Autumn festivities are highly anticipated, namely the annual gathering of the harvest. It is otherwise colloquially named ‘the Harvest’. It won’t come as news to any of the residents, as the season ends and food is plenty, the Harvest has been a long-standing tradition to celebrate the closeness of the community, and to express one’s gratitude for the people that you surround yourself around.
Your neighbours may inquire whether you’ll be bringing the same mash potatoes as last year, or perhaps the spiced meatballs that the Alkherns simply couldn’t get enough of — they were just so delicious! Either way, you may want to start coming up with a special dish to bring to the community gathering or find someone to snag a recipe from, as it’ll gain you admiration or admonition, depending on the popularity of your offering.
Sunsets are beautiful, picturesque moments that conclude the end of a perfectly spent day, and the sunsets in Amaryllis Grove are certainly no different. As the town winds down and residents return to their homes for the night, you and your fellow Orbers will follow suit – as is the way of things. The nights are a little overcast during this time of the year, with cloud-cover masking out the stars and the glow of the moon. It’s quiet. Only the sounds of night-insects chirping can be heard, and the soft, occasional coo of a bird asleep in its nest.
4.0 Perhaps you’re catching up on some late-night reading, or grabbing a late-night snack or a night-cap. The last of the evening hours are usually spent in the comfort of your own home until a new day begins, although there is a town speakeasy that remains open until late, if you can find it. Once you climb into bed, there really doesn’t seem to be a reason for anything other than a soundless, well-deserved rest.
You’ll be tucked up in your own bed, or perhaps the bed you share with your backstory-spouse, when you hear a shrill scream that wakes you up from your sleep. High on the adrenaline, you may want to don a robe and your slippers and step outside past your front door where you’ll be joined by other neighbours on your street. They exchange glances with each other, and then may meet eyes with you, and they look scared, with their wide eyes and clenched fists, some of the husbands and wives holding each other’s hands for comfort. It isn’t outside of the norm for such a startling cry. The house in question will be fully lit, with Mrs Myrsdin sobbing into her hands, mumbling, ‘I told him not to say anything! I told him to keep quiet! It came for him–’ as the AGPD (Amaryllis Grove Police Department) approach her, one of the officers patting her shoulder in consolation. Another officer moves towards a cluster of concerned neighbours, assuring them that this will be taken care of, and when they spot you, they’ll tell you the same.
It might seem difficult now to head back to sleep, but the crowd disperses and the AGPD lead Mrs Myrsdin back into the house. The lights remain on for another hour, maybe two, and then the entire block quiets again, the AGPD preparing to leave for the station once more. It seems there’s nothing else to do but get as much rest as you can before the morning ... but everything about this doesn’t sit quite right. Maybe you'll linger behind for a moment, see if you can ask a few questions, gather a bit of information, as it seems that after the brief moment of shock none of the residents seem to be particularly surprised by any of this.
5.0 The skies are blue and the sun is bright, and as Amaryllis Grove wakes up to a new day, everything feels as though Mrs Myrsdin never screamed into the night, with no signs of the AGPD having visited, and not a whisper to be said of Mrs Myrsdin's husband disappearing. If you try to investigate what happened at the house last night, Mrs Myrsdin will conveniently be absent, and any neighbours around you may either greet you with the most firm, reassuring smiles, or an outright aloofness to ignore anything you say. They’ll interject by telling you about the Harvest festivities, or make a comment about the weather. Some might sound snappish and dismissive. One thing’s for sure: everything feels tense.
But as the skies gradually shift to an overcast, one of your neighbours may gesture to the sky with another plasticky smile, commenting about the brightness of the sun. ‘It sure is bright today,’ they might say, the comment seemingly so off-handed. It’s casual, polite, and a little strained. ‘It’s got a far reach.’
It’s too bright to stare directly into the sun without damaging your eyes, but as you glance up just past it, you might notice that the sun looks a little … too close. And it doesn’t look a whole lot like a sun either, though it is bright but it looks like a large whitish sphere with a piercing, golden iris and it seems to be watching. This certainly wasn’t in the morning’s weather report.
6.0 As you continue to settle in Amaryllis Grove, you may begin to pick up on other strange things that you hadn’t noticed before – not surprising, considering the whirlwind of events that have taken place in such a short period of time and having to grow accustomed to the daily lives of the residents in Amaryllis Grove.
There are figures that resemble people scattered around town in all shapes, sizes, and races, replicated with excruciating detail, all the way down to their expressions and poses. In their everyday wear, they stoically fill in corners and take up empty spaces, and while it can’t possibly be true, their eyes seem to follow you as you move past them – even with the empty gazes of their glassy eyes. They’re made of metal and clad in something soft and pliable to make up their skin. Once you know what you’re looking for, they almost start to make themselves more visible to you. But if you study them for too long, you may begin to feel a little nauseous and queasy, and temporarily experience vertigo. Or you may start to have feelings of paranoia settle in, making you short-tempered and twitchy.
These figures can be found almost everywhere around the town, but they will mostly be populated in and around the residential blocks, looking as though they’re busily living their lives in passive background poses. They’re easy enough to miss if you aren’t sure what you’re looking for, and they’re so life-like you almost feel rude staring for too long, in case they turn their heads towards you.
And on the next night, you might catch the glimpse of a dark, stationary silhouette of a man in the Myrsdin house just before Mrs Myrsdin draws the curtains closed.
F Y I
• If you have questions about any of the prompts or the mission in general, please direct them HERE.
• To explore a specific location or speak to any of the NPCs, please submit your search request HERE.
• And finally, your soundtrack for this log: ♪ ♪ ♪
no subject
Stop looking at them so much. We're - we still don't know why they're causing us to feel as fucked up as we do.
Were you on your way home?
no subject
[but she can't get home feeling like this. she'll no doubt fall sooner rather than later. heels and nausea aren't a good combination.]
no subject
I'll help you back to where you want to be. But my place is close, too, if where you're headed is too far to want to bother.
no subject
[since, after all. they're "family."]
no subject
[ First, he offers Emily his hand so she can steady herself, take a moment to get her bearings. Once she does and is actually ready to get moving, Yzak shifts so he can properly slide an arm around her lower back to keep her steady. They're very assured movements, almost unconscious as if he's done this sort of thing a million times before.
Furthermore, he lets Emily set the pace once they get moving, adjusting as needed, keenly focused on even the smallest of cues, even ones that Emily herself might not realize she needs.
She said to talk to her, keep her focus away from the odd things that seem to be multiplying each day that passes. Yzak tips his chin down, brow furrowing, trying to pull something from his mind some random subject to spring off of. He glances to a house across the street, eyes landing on a neat little flowerbed set outside one of the windows. ]
... Do you have a favorite flower? We've got a lot of them around my home, back in my world. But that's thanks to my mother.
no subject
favorite flower? an answer comes to mind easily.]
...Sunflowers. I couldn't grow them around my home in the city, but I love them so. Strong, bright things. [she hasn't seen them in person for a while, but the memory is clear. their golden yellow faces, always pulling out a smile.] Did you ever help your mother with the gardening?
no subject
Until recently, she didn't do it very much, either. We have a gardener.
[ Bougie ass mfers. Still, Yzak keeps his eyes ahead, still focused on where they're going, still hyper-aware of Emily's movement and need for support, but a part of his mind wanders a little. Despite the messiness and awkward things left behind before he came to the Ximilia, as well as the apprehension - magnified, now, for so many other reasons - to have to pick it all back up when he returns ... speaking of his mother just reminds him of the fact that he misses her. He's been away for war but even that only lasted so long; this entire mission is the longest he's gone without seeing her. Despite the complications that have come up, made things tense and awkward between them, nothing has ever been powerful enough to sever that tie, that love between mother and son. ]
... She still doesn't. Only a little bit more, since she's got more time to, as of late.
It's what her name is a derivation of. Azelia means Flower. Azalea is a type of flower. Her name is Ezalia.
no subject
[it's been a long, long time since she thought about her own mother. the memories are dusty, distant, riddled with holes in the way so many things are. wherever she is, Emily hopes dearly that she'll never know what became of her daughter. if she thinks Emily disappeared, all the better.]
With that recent announcement, you must be happy - you'll get to see her sooner rather than later.
no subject
But when Degar gave them those parting words before they were sent planetside ... all Yzak's felt inside is a whirlwind. Too many clashing, contradictory feelings mixed up in unknown factors, and reaching down to try and untangle them, begin to make sense of them, has just resulted in frustration and looking away, back to the mission at hand, pushing it down. ]
It'll be nice to see her again. [ An answer, but a clear surface statement that barely covers all of the other emotions churning just beneath it that his eyes can't quite hide. He looks forward again. ]
She was one of the last people I saw, before I came to the station. That was around two and a half years ago, now.
All of this time has passed for me, but when I go back, there's a high chance none will have for her or anybody else. Nor the knowledge that I went anywhere at all or did anything to change the present that waits for me when I go back.
[ He still speaks with a flow, but there's a dip in his voice when he mentions the next thing: ] I'm not going to let anybody take my memory of any of this from me without a fight, [ And then it's right back up again. ] but I always think about how fucking insane it would sound to tell her or anybody about this.
no subject
there's no guarantee she'd be back there, but a low and miserable part of herself says that it was inevitable. that even if her life went better, her soul would always be bound up in that place. and if she didn't remember anything, didn't recall any bargain, any breath of freedom, then...what did it end up mattering?
oh, her thoughts are gloomy, but she looks to Yzak with a true worry in her eyes.]
Is it...likely they'd take our memories?
[she doesn't think she can bear to lose more.]
no subject
One that I ... understand, but still don't entirely like or approve of.
But it's been said that it's a possibility. Some who've gone and returned don't recall remembering things when they continued on with their lives. Some have gone and returned with no memory of being here at all. [ There's a flicker of hurt in his eye when he says that second thing. It's happened more than once, and being forgotten, feeling left behind is something that he hates more than anything. ]
But my memories are mine, and I'm not about to just accept it if someone or something wants to take them away.
no subject
[which. she greatly disapproves of as a concept.]
The life you live, you need to remember it.
[lest you make the same mistakes again.]
no subject
[ Yzak goes silent for a few moments when Emily speaks of needing to remember. He agrees with it wholeheartedly. His past, his sins, no matter how much they weigh on him, are all stones on the path that brought him where he is now. Make him who he is now.
Even here, the pain he feels, regardless of how deep it goes and how much he wishes it was gone, he doesn't want to forget any of it either. Even if from time to time, the worst parts of him will taunt him and ask if he really does want to return home with it, he did his duty like he was supposed to, it's all he should have had anyway, it was his own fault to want more than that.
He shakes his head. ]
We'll do our best to ensure we don't end up in a similar state. Things are better prepared for collecting the orbs now, anyway, so we're much better off.
[ And then to swing back toward what they were initially speaking of: ]
What about you? Do you have family that you're looking forward to seeing once we're through here?
no subject
her family. does she even remember much of them anymore? or has the cycle eaten that too, memories lost to too much trauma, her mind desperately holding onto the scraps she still has.]
...No. My family has passed.
[it's the safest lie, because if it isn't true, then it means she doesn't have to admit what she doesn't know. and if it's true, then she'll never know.]
Truthfully, I was wondering if there would be any room if someone wanted to stay on the team. Travel, see the sights, be able to help people who need it. There's always call for skilled hands somewhere.
no subject
[ It's something he's used to hearing from people. Both here and back home. ]
Stay on the team, though...? You mean never return at all?
no subject
Not exactly that, but...there's more to do here. And I confess I want to see more of other worlds - to experience how different space is, the technology, the people. I'm afraid I've been spoiled by what I've experienced here. And without much to return to, delaying my return isn't the crisis it might be.
no subject
[ And then, assumptions hit, because these are things he knows people have floated before. ] There've been people here that aren't alive anymore, back where they came from. And some who just come from a world that's shit for them. I'm not sure if either is the case for you, but I guess that's not an uncommon option to want to take.
no subject
There are others who'd like a longer contract as well? That is somewhat reassuring...I wouldn't be fully absent any familiar faces. Whatever drives them to want to spend more time on this adventure, so to speak, if it is tragedy...I hope they can find some measure of happiness or fulfillment here.
no subject
That is what most people seek.
[ More of a neutral response, because it stings at him a bit. Because he found those things here, and then he lost them. ]
So let's hope that's an option for you at the end of this.
no subject
[since, she assumes he'll go, in the end.]
no subject
At least one thing does stay steadfast within him. ]
It'll be worth it [ Fulfilling, at least. ] to complete my goal here. So long as that goes well after all the work we've put into this, I can return home glad that I've succeeded.